Title: Once Loved

Author: Moonpiegirl

Rating: M

Warnings: Some materials may to mature for younger audiences.

Spoilers: Seasons four and five and six

Feedback: Yes please!

Disclaimer: Not mine. The characters of Supernatural belong to Kripke and CW Television. Velvet is mine.

Summary: Dean and Sam rescue a woman from demons. No one seems to know why the demons are after her. Velvet is very special and Lucifer wants her. Castiel seems at a loss too. While the brothers, Bobby, and Ruby battle to keep her safe, Castiel begins to develop some very human feelings.

Prologue

Dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves of the large tree shading the man sitting underneath it. He sat staring out into the meadow of wildflowers full of butterflies and flying birds. A peaceful place where he often came to sit when troubled. This was one of those times.

"Is it done?" He asked the man approaching him.

"Yes," he replied bowing his head before looking at his face.

"Are you sure it is hidden well? It must be protected at all costs. You have the charge. Don't fail me in this Barchiel. Castiel has no idea what is planned." The man asked, as he threw breadcrumbs to some waiting birds.

"No, he is completely ignorant. The entire host continues to be in the dark, so to speak. Are you positive he must endure this? It seems cruel," the blonde angel spoke with an honest heart.

"Cruel yes but necessary, if they are to survive. You think I do this lightly."

"No, I don't but surely there is another way," Barchiel insisted.

"This is how it should be. How it must be," his voice sad as he watched a butterfly land next to him.

"But now with the Morning Star gone…"

Pain was evident on the man's face as he thought of losing Lucifer. "He was prideful, foolish and I can't forgive him for what he has done. That is why I given you this charge. I cannot bear the loss again."

Without a warning, the sitting man was gone and Barchiel was left alone. Sighing, he went to the training fields. A young angel was training in hand-to-hand combat with Gabriel. He was a beautiful angel, full of life and grace hidden beneath his quiet exterior. His father seemed to take pride in this angel although none of the other angel's ever knew it. Bachiel watched the dedicated, noble youth as he attempted the new skills again and again. Shaking his head in sadness, he knew Castiel would be made to suffer and asked to do the impossible. Yet God had ordered the events and Bachiel would see them through.

Chapter 1

The Gingerbread Man

December 30

"I love you but I'm not in love with you," the man at the door, suitcases at his feet, told the woman standing in front of him

Stunned Velvet felt her heart plummet. "I don't understand. What did I do wrong?"

Her husband of ten years looked at floor. "Nothing. You did nothing wrong. You have been a wonderful wife. You've supported me, encouraged me, and kept me sane when I thought my job would drive me crazy. But I don't feel attracted to you the way a husband should. Don't tell me you haven't noticed that we don't act like a married couple anymore."

"I…I…," she managed. He was right. They didn't act like a normal couple. They were more like roommates. "We have a good life."

"It's not enough. I'm not happy. We never had children. I want children and you aren't able to give me that," he looked at her as though he was talking to a stranger.

"The house, the car and a sizeable bank account are all in your name. The lawyer will be sending the papers. All you need to do is sign," Donald continued.

All Velvet heard was "never had children." He'd always said he didn't care she was unable to have children. She felt as if she had been hit with a hammer. "But maybe we could go to the specialist again…" but she knew it was hopeless. More than one fertility specialist had confirmed it. No children. Not for her. Ever.

"Goodbye Velvet. Take care of yourself," he said picking up his bags and walked out the door.

March 18

Velvet opened her eyes feeling the grittiness from the hours of crying. The scenario played out in her dreams last night. The sun was streaming through the windows reminding her that life goes on. Dragging herself into the bathroom, she splashed water onto her face letting the cool water soothe her aching eyes. Looking up at her reflection she murmured, "Happy crappy 35th Birthday," she said as the tears welled up again.

Stop it! Crying never helps. I've got to think. Yeah think about all the reasons my husband left me. "THIS has got to be the worst birthday yet," she spoke aloud as she walked into the living room.

"It's about to get a whole lot worse." a deep voice said from behind.

Velvet jerked around to find three men standing in the open doorway sealing off any escape. Instincts told her these were not ordinary men. She looked around for something to use as weapon. Nothing seemed to be within reach. When see looked back, she saw their eyes. They had black eyes. Solid black eyes.

"What do you want?" she swallowed nervously, trying not to let her fear show.

The stranger in the middle laughed. "You my dear. Well, your blood to be exact. The rest of you is worthless." He gave an evil smile as he started advancing towards her.

Velvet shouted hoping a neighbor would hear, "Get out of my house!"

"Now, now let us not fight. A lover's quarrel on our first date. Take her," he instructed the other two men.

They moved unnaturally fast. They grabbed her arms, clamping a hand over her mouth as she started to scream.

The man came and stood in front of her. Running a finger over her forehead, he studied her. His black eyes became hazel as they turned to normal human eyes. Taking her left hand he traced a spiral on her palm and then on top of hand. It was as if he was looking for something. Then he did the same with her right hand. "Curious," he said softly as he dropped her hand. A small dagger with a red jewel appeared in his hand. He drew it across her chest and a small line of red appeared. He touched a finger to it and brought it to his mouth.

"Ummm. Tasty…" he chuckled. "Shall we go? I have a very special place set up just for you. Yes… you are going to be very very sweet"

She continued to struggle as the men dragged her by the arms. Oh my god! They're going to kill me. Please Lord help me. Please!

"You're not going anywhere ugly," a voice sprang out of nowhere. "Turn her loose now."

The two men stopped walking but Velvet continued to struggle. Their grip was strong on her arms. Maybe the police were there but they hadn't had time.

"I don't think so boys. She's mine and I intend to bleed her. I know who you are and I am not afraid," he smiled again.

"Well ugly you're gonna be afraid when we're done with you," the male voice answered.

Velvet could see two figures. One very tall a dark headed while the other was shorter and lighter haired. Not police judging by their clothing. The two men stood solid and determined. She could not see them well because the hazel-eyed man stood in front of her. The grip on her arms tightened.

"Let's see what you got. Bring it," the man challenged and all hell broke loose.

The men launched themselves at each other. Velvet found she was no longer in their grip but she couldn't move. She was stunned at the chaos in front of her. The tall one had a knife in his hand and was circling around one of the men. The lighter haired man was throwing punches at the horrible man and his companion. I need to do something! She ran to the fireplace and grabbed a poker.

Turning she ran at the men. The dark haired man was up against the wall with a hand around his throat. She hit the man holding him on the back of the head causing him to crumple to the floor.

"Get him!" Mr. Ugly shouted to his flunky indicating the freed man that was now on his hands and knees coughing.

Doing as he was told he ran toward the injured man. As the flunky grabbed the dark haired man, he stuck a blade into the attacker's chest. Black smoke slithered from his mouth and descended to the floor swirling around his feet. The man collapsed. He stabbed the other man as his eyes began to open and the same black slithering smoke escaped mimicking the other.

The evil man was on his knees and the lighter haired man was chanting something unintelligible.

"You'll never keep her safe. She belongs to Lucifer. We will not stop coming for her. So run run as fast as you can…,"and throwing his head back the same black smoke poured from his mouth into the vent in the ceiling. The body fell to floor, lifeless eyes staring.

Dropping the poker, Velvet felt dizzy and started swaying. She felt strong arms catch her. The dark haired man helped her to the couch. She was shaking from fright and the sudden lose of adrenaline.

"Who were they? Who are you?" she questioned not looking up afraid she'd look at the three dead bodies on her living room floor.

"Those, sweet cheeks, were demons and from the sounds of it they wanted you for dinner," the lighter haired man answered. "My name is Dean and this is my brother Sam."

"Demons? Like from the Bible?" Velvet asked not quite allowing herself to believe.

"Yes and for some reason they really want you. Now we have to get you to a safe place and find out exactly why," Sam said gently. "Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere else?" She indicated the small cut on her chest. "Is there anyone else in the house?"

"No. There's no one else. Why? Why did they come after me? I'm nothing special," Velvet said as the shaking started subsiding. She was safe for now.

Dean stood. "Pack what you need. We're leaving in ten minutes. Sam, call Bobby and tell him we're on our way. I'm going outside to check around."

Twenty minutes later Velvet found herself in the backseat of Dean's beloved car. She studied the two men. Dean was handsome and muscular with an easy smile and he glanced every once in while in the rear view mirror asking how she was doing. He had beautiful green eyes and short brown hair. On ordinary days, this would be a lethal combination for her. After all it was his green eyes she noticed first when she met Donald.

Sam was taller and darker. He seemed like he'd be very good a brooding. Good looking with longer dark hair and haunted blue green eyes. He didn't speak much but typed away on a laptop as they drove well into the night.

Dean and Sam spoke very little on drive. Sam was deep in research mode, knowing if they drove straight through the chances of demons catching them would be slim. Dean was trying to fathom why someone wanted her.

Dean would glance back at the woman in the back seat just to make sure she was doing alright. She was pretty with dark brown hair and brown eyes so dark they looked black. She had jumped in and saved Sam with that poker. When they got to Bobby's he could stash her in the safe room. That demon wanted her. But why? She didn't seem anything other than an average bored housewife. Too many curves on her for his taste though. Yeah he liked curves but not that many.

Daylight was breaking as they pulled into a junkyard. They stopped in front of a dilapidated two-story house with a tow truck and a dark van parked nearby.

"We're here. Let's get inside," Dean said jumping out of the car and opening the back door for her. He took the one bag she'd packed and led her inside, Sam following behind with his laptop.

"Bout time you two showed up," an older man with a beard and baseball cap announced as they walked through the door.

"Good to see you too. Bobby this is…" Dean started but stopped realizing he didn't know her name.

"Velvet. Velvet Lang," she volunteered. She looked around the kitchen. It looked like it needed a woman's touch.

"Well Velvet, welcome. Now why were demons after you?" Bobby asked grabbing a beer from the fridge and tossing it to Dean. He sized her up. She looked normal. Nothing to say why a demon would be after her but according to Sam she was an innocent and he'd do his part to keep her safe just as the brothers would.

"I don't know. They just appeared out of nowhere. I'd never seen them before," she answered. "This is so crazy. I'm going to wake up any minute. Any minute I'll be safe at home with my husband." This couldn't be happening. Demons didn't just appear into someone's house and talk about killing them.

Sam exclaimed, "I thought there was no one in the house. What about your husband? How could you just leave him?"

"No, no. There really wasn't anyone. I'm divorced." All the sudden she felt so tired and defeated. "What do we do now?"

Bobby saw the exhaustion in her eyes. "Ok. Velvet I'll show you where the bathroom is because I know you want to clean up and then I'll fix some grub. Everyone must be hungry."

She looked down and indeed, she discovered blood on her clothes. Velvet smiled at Bobby grateful for the kindness.

Twenty minutes later, they all sat at the kitchen table devouring the bacon, eggs and toast Bobby had fixed. Sam noticed Velvet only picked at hers.

Booby said, "Eat Velvet. You need to keep your strength up." Then he turned to Sam, "You find anything yet?"

"Nothing. This seems something off the radar. Maybe Cas will know something," Sam replied, finishing off his orange juice.

Dean looked at Velvet. He knew it had to be hard for civilians to have something like this dumped on them. "You okay?"

Velvet looked at him. "Yeah. Listen I'd like to get some fresh air. When I come back I'll do the dishes?"

Dean looked at Bobby. "No can do. You've going into the safe room until we can sort this out."

"Safe room?" she echoed. It sounded safe.

The safe room was underground with huge rotating fan blades at the top. The walls were metal and it reminded her of an old missile silo she'd seen in a movie. On the walls were symbols, none of which she recognized. Sparsely furnished she wondered what she was supposed to do here.

Bobby tapped on the side. "Solid iron. Guaranteed to keep out ghosts and enough anti demon graffiti to keep out a legion. Nothin's gettin in here. You're safe." He looked immensely proud.

"Thank you for taking me in Bobby. I still don't have my head wrapped around all this," Velvet responded with a smile.

Dean dropped her bag on the cot and grinned. "I hope you enjoy reading. Cause there's not much else to do down here."

Velvet nodded, "I love to read. I do writing and editing for several charitable organizations. I brought a couple of books with me. I won't have to be here any longer than a day or two."

"Well sweet cheeks that all depends on what we find out," Dean winked and her alone to dwell on her thoughts.